Foreign Language
A career in foreign language is an attractive proposition, for those who have a flair for languages. Our trade links are expanding overseas so the requirement for people with skills in language is increasing. Skills in foreign languages like French, German, Russian, Chinese and more recently Japanese, Spanish and Korean are in great demand. Opportunities start from tour operators, online content writers, technical translators or decoders, interpreters and translators. Interpreters need a thorough knowledge of the language, because they have to transfer spoken statements from one language to another, where as translators have to translate written documents, which needs excellent writing skills in languages.
With the globalisation of Indian economy, multinationals coming to India and more and more companies going for joint ventures abroad, the job scenario for those proficient in foreign languages have opened up. The ever increasing amount of scientific, technological and cultural information promises a growing need for those who are able to facilitate international communications. Academic qualifications in foreign languages helps in pursuing careers in the areas of tourism, entertainment, public relations and mass communication, international organizations, embassies, diplomatic service, publishing houses, BPO's etc. More and more avenues are opening up in tourism and call centres.
The future growth prospects also vary from language to language. In governmental work, apart from French, German, Spanish, Japanese etc, even smaller languages like Pashpio, Uzbek, Tajiks, Hebrew, Portuguese etc have a huge demand now.
Eligibility & Course Areas
There are 3 types of courses to pursue for a career in foreign languages, ie., Certificate course, Diploma course and Degree courses. Some institutes offer both basic and advanced level courses such as postgraduate and PhD, some of them extending upto 5-6 years.
The eligibility for certificate and degree courses is 10+2. In most of the places eligibility for the diploma course is the certificate course in that language. JNU is a major institution conducting language courses. For Japanese, there is a language proficiency test conducted by the Mombusho Scholars Association and Alliance Française is the centre for conducting various French tests like the TEF ( required by the Canadian High Commission), the TCF, DELF /DALF tests and diplomas delivered by the French Ministry of Education.
Job Prospects & Career Options
Job prospects vary from secretarial, executive and public relation assignments as well as for translation and interpretation jobs. Translators are employed with industries, publishing houses, research and government organisations such as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and embassies etc. Companies such as HP, Oracle, Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Thomson, GE, Aventis, Moulinex etc are employing language experts. Other job opportunities for a language specialist are travel and tourism sector, hotel industry, exhibitions and fairs, airline offices, export agencies, radio stations, trade organizations and teaching. For pursuing a career in teaching, a teacher should be a graduate in that foreign language and must have a teaching degree.
Nature of Work
Opportunities for regular employment are few ,attaining professional qualification in foreign languages, one can work in the following areas.
TEACHING: The most common of all the available career options in foreign language is teaching. language. As a teacher, a person get enough opportunities to increase the skills. As far as teaching jobs are concerned, many institutions are offering courses in foreign languages and so jobs exists at all levels. Those reluctant to engage themselves in a full-time profession, can take private tuition as well.
INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS: Interpreters and translators both need to have a good command over two or more languages. Interpreters job relates to interpreting spoken words of one language into another, therefore needs to have not only good command over the language but have excellent verbal communication skills.
The job of an interpreter can be of different types. Sometimes they are engaged in simultaneous interpretation, which is used for meetings, conferences, speeches etc. Here the interpreters sits in a sound proof room and listens to speeches and almost spontaneously interprets it in the target language into a microphone. The other type of interpreting are consecutive interpreting and liaison interpreting. Consecutive interpreting goes on during formal speeches where the speaker halts for a while when the interpreter interprets the spoken statements to the audience. Liaison interpreting is to facilitate conversation between to people knowing different languages. Interpreters accompany business groups and official delegations on overseas trips and are in great demand for technical translation.
Translation work can be related to a variety of fields like technical, scientific literary or business. Translators work on books, scripts, articles and translate them into specified languages. Apart from having linguistic skills, a translator must possess adequate knowledge in the area of the work so as to maintain the style and essence of the original text.
FREELANCING: Often, after pursuing courses in foreign languages, people like to work as freelancers. These people get work in translation bureaus, research organisations, international organisations like UNO, FAO, foreign companies, Reserve Bank of India, publishing houses etc. Expertise in foreign language coupled with other additional qualifications in areas like management, tourism, hospitality industry, airlines can be even fruitful and better the chances for employment opportunities.
Institutes
Click on the following link for the details of Indian Institutes :
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